Friday Update: Twenty-seven One Twenty-three…

Another cold and gloomy week weather-wise, making for a dark and chilly time in the workshop. That said, I did manage a day out on Monday to the coast, to walk beside the sea and get some headspace...

As well as see a train! Criccieth is a funny place - the weather can often change very quickly as and as we left my trusty steed at the car park to walk down the beach towards Porthmadog it was clear and dry, and looked even clearer further south in Cardigan bay. By the time we turned around and walked back (seeing later the 158, above, along the top of the beach) things has become more gloomy and we were covered in the first beads of a North Wales drizzle as we got back to the car! Still, the sea air and a train were fuel for the soul and the weather just adds to the feeling of being alive.

In the workshop I've been trying to finish off a couple of projects to make space for the layout commissions and 2023 Ruston LB builds - and to that end a concerted effort on Edward Thomas saw the Fox N scale yellow / black lining added to the model. Next up will be to add the inverted corners, touch it all up with gloss black paint to cover the overlaps and then finish the detail painting. I've a feeling it's going to look very nice indeed - certainly is rewarding the time and patience put into her already. If you've got a Fourdees 009 model you'd like me to paint / line / weather for you, do let me know and I can give you a fixed price proposal.

Mid week a few new N gauge items arrived for the 'Bae Ceredigion' project - a Farish 25/1 and a pair of Dapol 'Dogfish' - the former second hand from a kind member on the N gauge forum and the latter new via KJB models. Where the 25 runs superbly and as you can see I've added some snowploughs and couplings already the same can't be said for the Dapol wagons that arrived with bowed chassis. This seems to be a casting defect, but is exacerbated by the design and assembly of the ballast door wheels. I stripped them both down and re-assembled which greatly improved matters. These will be due a weathering, and book end my 1980s period for the layout. They are also 'generally' useful models for any layout seeing as 25s saw service across so much of the country. If any of the China Clay layouts see the light of day then it would look equally at home crossing Torrington viaduct!

Finally, the 1/20 scale 'way car' is pretty much complete bar a few details. This project has been good fun, the quality of the original design evident in it's component fit and assembly - a few missing parts have been fabricated, others repaired and the end result is very pleasing. Finished in a pale yellow, I hope to get it completed today, so a post all of it's own will follow next week. 

This weekend I've a feeling I'd quite to do some work on Beaverbrook, but we'll see how things pan out. I've a few N gauge models as well as H0 freight cars that are still 'box fresh', others that need small details adding... there are structures on Beaverbrook to start, or even 'finished' versions of the back scene images I added a few months ago. The beauty of our hobby is the variety in activities it presents, all opportunities for us to practice the craft and calm a busy mind. I hope you all find some headspace this weekend too, until next time - more soon...

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